Max Verstappen had had a hard head in a good result all weekend, but during the Turkish Grand Prix on the wet circuit of Istanbul Park, the Dutchman regained the lead in the battle for the world championship with his big competitor, Lewis Hamilton. Verstappen himself finished second, behind the Finn Valtteri Bottas, and only saw Hamilton finish fifth.
For Bottas, who is in his last races for Mercedes, it was the first win of the season. He had started from pole position and did not relinquish the lead.
For Verstappen, the result in Turkey, after a race under difficult conditions, was a huge windfall. In the run-up, he had complained about a car not being fast enough compared to its Mercedes competitors.
Grid penalty
But the Red Bull leader took full advantage of the grid penalty that Hamilton received because of the partial change of his fourth engine of the season. The Briton, who had won qualifying on Saturday and seemed by far the fastest in Turkey, had to start from eleventh place. Hamilton managed to regain quite a few places on Sunday, but after a late tire change he lost the podium.
On the slowly drying asphalt, the entire field finished the race on intermediates, tires that are somewhere in between slicks and wet tires in terms of profile.
Verstappen, who was allowed to start from second place behind Bottas, did not actually get into trouble in Turkey for a moment. He finished neatly in second, turning a two-point deficit into a six-point lead over Hamilton: 262.5 to 256.6.
Verstappen cherishes that lead in the most exciting Formula 1 season in years. With six races to go, the differences between Red Bull Racing and Mercedes are minimal. The next appointment is in Austin, the capital of Texas, in two weeks for the United States Grand Prix. “I think we will also have a good fight with Mercedes in Austin,” said Verstappen after the race in Istanbul. “It has been very close all year. We keep pushing and trying to improve. We’ll see where it ends then. So far this season has been going really well.”
Highest achievable
Verstappen concluded after the race that second place would have been the highest achievable. “Valtteri had a bit more speed, we couldn’t really push,” he said. “I am happy with second place. What was the hardest? Stay awake.”
Verstappen called it “a bit annoying race” afterwards at Ziggo, because of the wet circuit. That forced him to especially save his tires. “It was very difficult today. In these circumstances it is easy to make a mistake. The main thing was to ‘manage’ the tires well. I’ve never really been able to push. You couldn’t go full throttle for one lap.”
Hamilton criticized his own team after the race. He thought Mercedes had made a big mistake. The seven-time world champion was called in for a new set of tires in the final phase of the race, while Hamilton had indicated shortly before that he wanted to finish the race without a pit stop. He would have had good prospects for third place with that strategy, right behind his main competitor, Verstappen. “We probably could and should have stayed outside,” Hamilton grumbled.
Discussion
Hamilton had already had a big discussion with his team during the race over the on-board radio. Once he had new tires he struggled through the last seven rounds. “I told you so,” he shouted angrily over the on-board radio, before the finish. “I don’t think it was a difficult decision at all, but it is what it is. We will learn from this,” said Hamilton at Ziggo. “I listened because we work as a team and the team called me in. We lost two places because of the pit stop, maybe even more.”
Verstappen may be happy to regain top spot in the World Cup standings, but he is concerned about the last six races of the season, looking at the performance of the Red Bull Racing and Mercedes cars at this stage of the race. title fight. “I think we are a bit too slow at the moment. So we have to get to work,” Verstappen warned.